You can disable Wi-Fi Sense on Windows 11/10 Enterprise or Pro editions using Registry Editor and Local Group Policy Editor, and deploy this policy across your system. Wi-Fi Sense can automatically make Wi-Fi connections on your computer so that you can go online quickly in more locations. Wi-Fi Sense can connect you to open Wi-Fi hotspots that are collected through crowdsourcing, or to Wi-Fi networks that your contacts share with you through Wi-Fi Sense.
Disable Wi-Fi Sense using Registry in Windows
To disable Wi-Fi Sense on computers in the enterprise environment, you can make use of the Windows Registry Editor.
If you are an IT administrator and want to deploy this policy across your system, Run regedit to open the Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WcmSvc\wifinetworkmanager\config\
Right-click in the right pane and select DWORD (32-bit).
Name it AutoConnectAllowedOEM and give it a value of 0.
This will disable Wi-Fi Sense in your enterprise environment.
You can also use Group Policy to create and set this DWORD registry value to 0 to disable Wi-Fi Sense. But if you do so, it will also disable the following related Wi-Fi Sense features:
- Allow me to select networks to share my contacts
- Connect automatically to open Hotspots
- Connect automatically to networks shared by my contacts.
You can also of course turn off Wi-Fi Sense via Settings.
Disable Wi-Fi Sense using Group Policy in Windows
To disable Wi-Fi Sense using Group Policy in Windows, follow these steps:
- Open Local Group Policy Editor.
- Navigate to this path: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > WLAN Service > WLAN Settings.
- Double-click on the Allow Windows to automatically connect to suggested open hotspots, to networks shared by contacts, and to hotspots offering paid services
- Choose the Disabled option.
- Click the OK button.
Note: Windows 11 doesn’t have a similar feature included. However, if you want to stop Windows 11 from connecting to known Wi-Fi networks, you need to follow these steps:
- Press Win+I to open Windows Settings.
- Go to Network & internet > Wi-Fi.
- Click on the Manage known networks option on the right side.
- Click on a Wi-Fi network.
- Remove the tick from the Connect automatically when in range checkbox.
That’s all! I hope this guide helped.
Read: Wi-Fi turns off by itself in Windows 11
How do I permanently disable Wi-Fi sense?
To permanently disable Wi-Fi Sense, you need to use the Registry Editor. After opening Registry Editor on your computer, navigate to this path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WcmSvc\wifinetworkmanager\config\. Then, create a new REG_DWORD value named AutoConnectAllowedOEM. However, if it already exists on your computer, you need to set the value data as 0. Then, restart your computer to get the change.
How do I permanently turn off Wi-Fi on Windows 11?
To permanently turn off Wi-Fi on Windows 11, you need to uninstall the corresponding driver. Press Win+X and select Device Manager. Then, expand the Network adapters section, right-click on the wireless driver, and select Uninstall. Confirm the uninstallation, let it be uninstalled, close all windows, and restart your computer.
